This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

St. Paul, Minn. • Beating the Chicago Blackhawks usually requires a certain kind of performance: bruising, aggressive and unflappable.

That's precisely what the Minnesota Wild produced, entertaining the fans at their first home playoff game in five years.

They had a little luck, too, when Jason Zucker blindly sent his bad-angle overtime shot toward the goal.

Zucker scored at 2:15 of the extra period to give the Wild a 3-2 victory on Sunday to pull within 2-1 in the Western Conference quarterfinal series.

"I don't know if I even saw the net. I probably didn't even look at the net," said the rookie Zucker, who raced to the corner and jumped against the glass to celebrate. "I just tried shooting it, and it happened to go in for me."

Pierre-Marc Bouchard had a goal for the Wild after Johnny Oduya scored for the Blackhawks late in the first period. Patrick Kane had two assists for the Blackhawks and has five in the series.

Zach Parise's first goal of the series came early in the third period, but Duncan Keith got one back for the Blackhawks with 2:46 left in regulation after a slow line change by the suddenly conservative Wild.

That forced the second overtime in three games of this best-of-seven series. But rather than losing their edge in the locker room, the Wild returned to the ice after the third intermission with the same fire they had all afternoon.

"They just took it to another level," Blackhawks captain Jonathan Toews said.

He added: "You can't go out there and try to make pretty plays. It's got to be ugly. We're not doing that enough. Once we start doing that, we've got the strength, the speed and skill to get on the board and make things happen."

Penguins 5, Islanders 4 • Chris Kunitz scored his second power-play goal of the game 8:34 into overtime, off a pass from Sidney Crosby, and Pittsburgh shook off an early deficit and a late blown lead to win in Uniondale, N.Y.

Crosby, who had three assists in his second game back after missing a month because of a broken jaw, drew the decisive penalty against Brian Strait, who held the Penguins captain as he drove the net 33 seconds before the winning goal.

Senators 6, Canadiens 1 • Jean-Gabriel Pageau got his first NHL hat trick to lead host Ottawa in a fight-filled game in which the teams combined for 232 penalty minutes and nine players were given a game misconduct.

Sharks 5, Canucks 2 • Joe Pavelski and Logan Couture each scored twice to spoil Cory Schneider's return to the nets for visiting Vancouver. Couture and Patrick Marleau added scores 9 seconds apart to break the game open early in the third period. —

NHL playoffs

O Sunday's games

• Pittsburgh 5, N.Y. Islanders 4 (OT)

Penguins lead series 2-1

• Minnesota 3,Chicago 2 (OT)

Blackhawks lead series 2-1

• Ottawa 6, Montreal 1

Senators lead series 2-1

• San Jose 5, Vancouver 2

Sharks lead series 3-0

Monday's games

• Boston at Toronto,5 p.m., NHL Network

Series tied 1-1

• Washington at N.Y. Rangers, 5:30 p.m.,NBCSN

Capitals lead series 2-0

• Anaheim at Detroit,6 p.m., CNBC

Ducks lead series 2-1

• St. Louis at Los Angeles, 8 p.m., NBCSN

Blues lead series 2-1